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ELK 







ANIMAL FOLK 
OF WOOD AND PLAIN 

WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE COLOR-PLATES AFTER PAINTINGS IN WATER-COLOR 
TOGETHER WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN BLACK-AND-WHITE 


By EDWIN WILLARD DEMING 

AND WITH STORIES.") 

By 'THERESE (OVDEMING 

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NEW YORK 

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY 

FREDERICK Aj STOKES COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



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NOV 15 1916 


ELK AND SABLE 



? NCE there roamed over three-fourths of this great America the beautiful, graceful 
elk, king of all the deer family, with his wonderful crown of horn; but, like all 
other things of the very old time, he has been driven back to the fastnesses of the 
Rocky Mountains, where he still lives, and where he herds his bands and watches 
for all the dangers that threaten his family. 

Like many of our wild animals, he was misnamed by early explorers and set¬ 
tlers; for the elk of the Old World is just like our moose, and our elk claims to 
be a cousin of the stag or red deer of Europe. 

Our Indians called the beautiful elk, Wapiti, and if our country were not so full of people 
it might be easy to give the graceful creature that beautiful name, because it belongs to 
him. We will call him Wapiti in our story. If we could stop all hunters who kill him, we 
would not have to fear that sometime this great creature will be gone like the bison. 

Wapiti, the master, gathers together a little herd of cows, and these are his family. He 
leads them to the best feeding-grounds and watches and listens for all dangers. He fears, 
among other things, that a bull larger and stronger than he might come along and take the 
band away. When this happens, the master must fight, and if he proves the weaker, he has 
to give up his band, and the family has a new master. 

In the summer these animal people are greatly worried by flies and mosquitoes; then 
they will rush for water and stand in a stream for hours, to protect themselves from these 




ELK AND SABLE 


little pests. The old bull will roll and wallow in mud-holes—and then King Wapiti does 
not look so kingly! 

Toward winter, the master gathers his band together and they wander about until they 
find a good sheltered spot for a winter feeding-ground. Wapiti has a good appetite and is 
not too particular about what he finds for dinner. He eats all the grasses, herbs, lichens, 
and most of the weeds, but he loves the leaves and twigs of trees. Wapiti’s deer cousins 
feed mostly at night, but Wapiti prefers to rest at night and eat his meals in the daytime. 

While the family feeds, the master of the herd watches and listens for any danger that 
might threaten his cows, and if he hears, smells, or sees anything strange, he calls his family 
together and drives it to safety. 

All the fawns of the deer family wear little spotted suits of baby-clothes, and even the 
male has no horns; but when the little fellow gets to be about two years old he is the proud 
possessor of two long spikes. He shows them to all his sisters and his mother, and tries 
them on his brothers, he is so proud of them. You may well imagine, then, the surprise of 
this proud fellow when he loses his spikes completely, about March. The little fellow is so 
much ashamed of himself that he hides in the dense forests, where he finds many other 
brother Wapiti without the crown they had worn all winter. There these brothers live at 
peace with each other. They are so weak and so much strength is used up to grow a new 
pair that they do not care to be quarrelsome. 

Soon the horns begin to grow again, but they are covered with a soft skin, and then the 
horns are said to be in velvet. Can you guess what has happened? Wapiti has had a new 
prong added to his crown, and all this has taken only four months! Now Wapiti is proud 
again. He goes forth to find a new family, and forgets the tragedies he saw in the pine 


ELK AND SABLE 


woods, where the pine-marten or American sable jumps from tree to tree in pursuit of the 
little tree-dwellers or chases a poor little hare, which knows there is little hope for its life, as 
the sable is of the weasel family and does not rest until it has caught its prey. 

The sable’s coat is so valuable that he is trapped and killed to furnish furs to keep man 
warm in winter. 



SABLE 


CARIBOU AND ARCTIC HARE 


HEN you open your geography to the map of the North and begin to 
study of the Arctic, do you not wonder how the men who go so far up 
there to make these maps, live? Of course, you will say, they take all 
sorts of provisions with them. They must do that; but, in addition, 
they must have fresh meat, and for this they have to depend upon what¬ 
ever animals make that country their home. One of our greatest 
explorers went into this cold, unknown country, carrying with him pro¬ 
visions for sixty days and plenty of ammunition ; he stayed there for nearly two years, living 
upon what the country afforded. 

One of the most curious animals which have chosen this country for their home is the 
barren-ground caribou. To the Eskimo and also to many other Indian tribes, the caribou 
is most important, as it furnishes food and clothing for them. 

Our boys and girls will be interested to know that the caribou is the reindeer of America; 
although the real reindeer has been brought over from Lapland and thrives in our North 
Country. 

The caribou is a member of the deer family; but the mother caribou carry horns, too, 
though very much smaller than those of the male caribou. 

The horns of these queer animal people are very much alike and yet no two pairs seem 
the same. The horns are partly palmated, which means broad and flat, with projections 















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CARIBOU 

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CARIBOU AND ARCTIC HARE 


like fingers; the legs are thick and strong; and the hoofs expand and flatten, so that they 
act almost as snowshoes. The caribou walk and run with a slow, swinging gait; and as 
they roam about, the dew-claws and hoofs strike together, making a queer, clanking sound. 
The heavy coat is almost like a soft, warm mat near the body; and the long, coarse hair, 
growing through, acts as a raincoat. 

These strange people of the Arctic gather in great herds and, on account of the climate, 
migrate in the spring far to the North, where they wander over the great frozen regions, keep¬ 
ing to the low, barren grounds all summer and feeding upon such things as grow on these 
desolate shores. In the fall they begin traveling southward, to spend the winter in the forests, 
which afford some protection from the bitter winds and the fierce storms of this cold coun¬ 
try. Here they eat the mosses that hang from the trees, and browse upon the branches of 
the juicy evergreens. 

The caribou changes his clothing twice a year. He must be very vain! In the summer 
he wears a suit of brown, to match the colors in the barren marshes where he loves to live; 
but in the fall his hair grows longer, thicker, and much lighter. By midwinter and toward 
early spring the coat is smoky white, very nearly the color of a snowstorm in the woods, or 
of the mosses that hang from the trees, while the great horns look almost as if they might be 
dead branches of trees in the woodlands. This is Mother Nature’s way of giving each 
animal a chance to protect himself from his enemies. 

For this very same reason the little Arctic hare keeps on its coat of white all the year 
round. This little fellow, who shares the wintry, frozen Northland with the caribou, burrows 
a hole in a snowdrift for his home, or crawls under a friendly ledge of rock which seems to 
be waiting to protect the pretty, timid creature. 


CARIBOU AND ARCTIC HARE 


During the long, dim winter the Arctic hare stays close to a snowdrift. This is for pro¬ 
tection from the great Arctic owl, who is always ready to pounce upon and carry him off. 
Still, this little fellow can run very swiftly; and his gift from the Great Spirit was a keen 
sense of sight, scent, and hearing. 



ARCTIC HARE 



RACCOON 










RACCOON AND OPOSSUM 



jROWLING about in wet places, along the edges of swamps, with his clumsy yet 
deliberate gait, never discouraged in his hunt, we find the little raccoon. He is 
always ready to eat anything, from a hare to the green corn which the weary farmer 
tries so hard to protect, first from the crows and in the fall from the raccoon. 

But the raccoon is a clean little fellow. When he kills his meat he will not eat 
it until he has taken it down to the water to wash. He takes the meat in his two 
forepaws and drags it about in the water until the meat is white and flabby; then he will 
eat it. In the South the negro hunts this fellow for food and calls him “Brother ’Coon.” 

H is general color is gray and black; the fur is soft and long; while his very bushy tail 
has alternate black and gray rings, from the base to the tip. 

A live ’coon is one of the most interesting pets a boy could have. All he wants is enough 
to eat and a good big place to hide away in. He loves a hollow tree; but he prefers living 
in a cave in the rocks, if he can find a large one. 

H ow the farmers hate the raccoon! He loves green corn and he will ruin all the ears he 
can reach. 

Some say the raccoon is related to the bear family, though he is much smaller. He does 
have a great deal of the bear about him, and the Indians tell of a time when he was as big 
as a bear. At that time, he was traveling through the woods and came to the home of a 
poor old woman. As it was very cold, he went into the house; and after he had got warm, 






RACCOON AND OPOSSUM 


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he said: “Old woman, if you will rid me of the insects on my back, I will give you my mitttens.” 
The old woman did as the ’Coon asked, because she needed the mittens to trade for food 

for her babies. After she had finished, the ’Coon gave her 
his mittens and the old woman started off right after the 
Raccoon left the house. You remember it was very cold; 
soon the Raccoon’s hands were nearly frozen and he started 
back to make the old woman give him back his mittens; but 
she had gone to exchange them for food. When the Rac¬ 
coon reached the house and the children would not give up 
the mittens, he was very savage and killed all but one of the 
babies; then he became frightened and ran away. 

When the mother reached home, she saw ’coon tracks all 
around the house, and when she went inside she found all her 
babies dead but one. She ran after the ’Coon, following his 
tracks, until she caught him. Then she whipped and whipped 
him, until the Raccoon became one of the small animals; and 
all the stripes on him now are the black-and-blue marks from 
the whipping that was given him. The Indians are sure that 
is the reason for the Raccoon’s being so small; and surely the 
Raccoon deserved being punished for his ingratitude. 

Like the bear, too, this little fellow eats animals as well as 
vegetables. He shuffles through the woods eating berries, 
nuts, frogs, serpents, and anything else he can find. He 


OPOSSUM 


RACCOON AND OPOSSUM 


catches fish, waiting at the edge of a stream for a fish to swim by, when Mr. ’Coon reaches 
down and grabs it with his sharp claws. 

He prowls about at night, frightening the tree-dwellers; for they are blind at night and 
the raccoon can see everything. But the raccoon babies are blind, just like kittens, and then 
Mr. ’Coon must be careful or some other prowling forest-dweller will give him a scare. 

When cold weather comes on, the raccoons curl themselves up and go to sleep; but they 
do not sleep all winter as the bears do. They sleep a week or so at a time. When a warm 
spell comes on some of them will venture out, only to go to sleep again with the next cold 
spell. At the first sign of spring, the raccoon is out in the bogs and swamps, hunting snakes 
and frogs. 

The raccoon is not the only night prowler the tree-dwellers have to fear, for the opossum 
also sleeps all day and hunts at night. Yet the two are entirely different. The opossum has 
a tail which he can twist around the limb of a tree, while he hangs down to rob nests or 
gather fruits. He lives principally upon insects, fruits, nuts, berries, mice and bugs; but he 
loves sweet potatoes and other things that he can steal from the farmyard. No wonder 
farmers get discouraged when the wild folk make their homes on his farm! 


CANADA LYNX AND PORCUPINE 


HE flat-faced, savage Canadian lynx, with its great muscular legs, travels with 
silent leaps over the snow in winter or amici dry leaves, without making the si ight- 
est noise, in summer and fall. His soft, gray fur hides him so well that it is hard 
to see him, even at short distances; but the wood folk know they have him to 
fear, and as they love their wild life as well as their enemy, the lynx, loves his, 
they keep a sharp lookout for this silent shadow of death. 

Like all the cat family, he can climb any tree, and he feasts upon squirrels and birds; or 
he stretches himself upon the limb, among the lower branches, and pounces upon any 
unwary creature that passes his way. 

During the long, cold winters he almost starves; for days he can find nothing but 
scraps that have, perhaps, been cast aside by some hunter during a more plentiful season. 
The lynx wanders through the dense, dark northern forests, through the long, cold nights 
and the short days, starving, sometimes for days at a time, but never losing courage, know¬ 
ing that pretty soon the birds will come back from their warm home in the South, and the 
animal people will venture out again; then there will be plenty for all to eat. 

During the whole year in the North, the lynx depends a great deal upon rabbits; but 
every few years the rabbits seem to disappear. Nobody knows why; it may be from dis¬ 
ease. At this time, however, many lynx starve to death. Often in their desperate effort 
to get food they pounce upon the porcupine; but then they get their mouths so full of quills 
that they cannot eat and starve to death. 






CANADA LYNX 









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CANADA LYNX AND PORCUPINE 



Porcupines are of a dark brown or nearly black color. They are burrowing animals, 
though they sometimes make homes in rocky caves, and are as much at home in the tree- 
tops as on the ground. I hey strip the pine-trees of their bark, 
killing them for a meal. 

I he porcupine’s flesh is sometimes eaten ; though there is a preju¬ 
dice against it as food. In one of our trips in the West, we killed 
and ate a young porcupine, and the meat was tender and juicy, very 
much like young pork. 

His sense of sight is very poor and he seems dull-witted. He 
moves about slowly, perhaps because with his spines as weapons he 
fears nothing. He does not throw his spines, as is generally sup¬ 
posed, but when attacked by an enemy he erects his quills and then 
gives a strong sidewise slap with his tail. This drives the quills 
into his enemy. 

I he porcupine quills are very dangerous. Plach quill is fitted 
with numerous barbs that make it almost impossible to pull them 
out; in fact, they work their way into the body, and finally penetrate 
a vital spot, and the hunter has to give up his life for the meal he 
only half enjoyed many weeks before. 

Though naturally a nocturnal animal, the porcupine often prowls 
about by day, visiting the camps of hunters, eating all the salt he can 
find. He eats the bacon and everything leather he can find: he 
even eats the ax helves. Perhaps he prefers traveling in the day- 


CANADA LYNX AND PORCUPINE 


time, because most of his enemies prowl about at night, especially his most persistent enemy, 
the fisher, who manages to get the porcupine by the throat, where he is least protected by 
spines. 

When the very cold weather comes on, the porcupine curls up in a ball, with his spines 
toward the opening of his den, making him safe from almost any attack, trying to sleep and 
forget his hunger until a warm snap comes along. Then he gets out to feed upon the bark 
of trees, so that he can withstand the cold for another spell, but he fears nothing, and goes 
back to sleep, hoping that spring will hurry along so that he can enjoy the fresh green 
leaves again. 





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SLOTH AND BAY LYNX 


HE sluggish sloth is a stupid creature that passes all the day and most of the 
night hanging, back downward, from the branch of a tree. His long, slender 
limbs terminate in long, hooklike claws. 

He is so helpless and so weak, so unable to protect himself from his enemies, 
that one wonders why Dame Nature did not provide him with an armor of 
spines or scales, so that those who prey upon him would have at least a little 
trouble to kill this strange creature. Dame Nature has helped a little; for, in 
the rough, shaggy, grayish brown coat, lives a vegetable growth that makes him look as if 
he might be a lichen-covered knot that has grown on the limb. 

He hangs all day, and during the night travels slowly through the upper branches, hunt¬ 
ing for food; of which he finds plenty, for he lives mostly upon leaves and buds, although 
he also eats other vegetable matter that he may find. 

He is wholly unfitted to travel upon the ground, as his legs are too weak to carry hi$ 
body. He could neither run nor hide from an enemy (his speed is unbelievably lacking; 
he travels, perhaps, half a mile in twenty-four hours). He is too weak to burrow and too 
large to get into a hole. 

Because he finds it so difficult to travel over land, we wonder if he must always go without 
water; but for this Dame Nature provides. In the country he loves and calls his own, there 
is very heavy dew. In the early morning the sloth gathers together all the leaves within his 







SLOTH AND BAY LYNX 



reach and drinks this heavy dew. It is all the moisture he needs, besides what he can get 
from such fruit as he will find in his search for food. 

On account of the strange development of his teeth, the sloth belongs to a family called 
Edentata. He has no front teeth, and his cheek teeth, growing throughout his life, have 
never developed roots nor have they any outside coating. 

The sloth is one of the very lowest types of animals, having a very small brain. 

Sloths hunt at night. It is good there are few birds 
of prey in the forests these poor beasts inhabit, or they 
would have very little chance to live, for the sloths climb 
way out to the end of a limb, so they will be safe and 
out of the way of the bay lynx, who, like most other 
animal people, counts the sloth a great delicacy. 

The bay lynx, called also wildcat, bobcat, catamount, 
and red lynx, is a big, savage, stub-tailed cat, who does 
not hunt in the forests all the time, but also finds food 
in clearings, overgrown with brambles, and new growth. 
He travels about, feeling under the bushes for rabbits 
and other small game that might be hidden there. 
Like the rest of the cat family, he likes mice and will 
watch for them, or for small birds or squirrels, to come out of their hiding-places and serve 
a meal, as patiently as a house cat watches for a mouse. 

He wanders about in the snow all winter, hunting for food, still-hunting mostly, as he is 
not as swift a runner as the fox or weasel, and depends upon pouncing upon his prey. 




SLOTH AND BAY LYNX 


When the bay lynx hears a noise, he crouches and waits to see if the comer be friend or 
foe. If it be foe, he will disappear like a shadow; but if everything remains quiet he will 
travel on, giving a wild yell every once in a while, to frighten any wild life that may be hid¬ 
ing near by. 

In the spring, the bay lynx, like the domestic cat, loves to eat the blossoms of the fragrant 
catnip and to roll in the leaves of this plant. 


JAGUAR AND SKUNK 



LARGE, tawny-yellow cat, with black spots on his back and light-centered 
rosettes on his side, is the jaguar, the king of the Mexican jungles. He 
sometimes finds his way across the border, into the southern States; but he 
is very common in Mexico, living in the dense jungles, where he follows a 
regular trail, and preys upon all the wood folk. He is the largest of the cat 
family in North America, a powerfully built animal, with a head seemingly 
too large for its body and a tail entirely too short. 

Like all the cat family, he is a great climber, and depends upon his ability to climb when 
he attacks and seizes a peccary. These savage, fearless little beasts travel in droves, and 
are bound to avenge the death of their brother. They will drive the big jaguar up a tree, and 
keep him there until hunger forces them on, in search of food. 

In Mexico the jaguar is known as “el tigre”; and although a most powerful, fierce, and 
dangerous beast, like all other wild creatures he has learned to fear man and will seldom 
attack. 

A hunter friend tells a story of an alligator hunt. He was hunting for market, and as 
he was watching the river for his game he heard a slight noise and a movement behind him. 
Turning suddenly, he saw a large jaguar in position to spring. He felt that he had had a 
narrow escape, though he said he was not sure whether the jaguar was after him or the alli¬ 
gators he was hunting. 




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JAGUAR AND SKUNK 


Like all others of the cat family, the jaguar is a good fisherman, and will catch fish with 
his claws. 

The jaguar follows his well-beaten trails through the jungles, and feeds upon the many 
wild beasts unfortunate enough to cross his path; but he also is hunted. The Mexican 
Indians hunt him with a spear about eight feet long. They follow a trail until they come 
upon the jaguar. When he turns the Indian stoops very low, holding the blunt end of his 
spear solidly to the ground. The jaguar, realizing he is caught, prepares to spring; and 
the Indian directs the long weapon so that the jaguar when he springs, impales himself 
upon the spear. 

The beautiful little black and white kitten, with its large bushy tail, would make a pretty 
little pet, were it not capable of a most terrible revenge when it gets angry. The almost 
suffocating odor which the skunk or polecat sends forth to defend himself against most 
enemies is so offensive that the pretty pet is better left to his forest home. Still, he is hunted 
and trapped now to furnish furs for the market, as the otter, the beaver and the marten are 
getting more scarce. 

On account of his natural defense, the wood folk are careful not to disturb the skunk 
much, lest they get their noses full of the terrible odor and, like hunting dogs, will be unable 
to follow a scent for several days. This is why the skunk has become so lazy, slow, and 
fearless, that it does not even run from man. 

While out among the Indians, a hunter was lying asleep in his tepee when he was awak¬ 
ened by what sounded like an Indian dog, chewing some game he had brought in that day. 
Upon investigation he found that a skunk had come into his tepee for the meat. He 
slipped outdoors and shouted and screamed to frighten the intruder; but the skunk finished 


JAGUAR AND SKUNK 


his meal, and then came leisurely out of the tepee and slowly waddled down to his hole 
below the river bank. 

He feeds upon everything that he can catch easily while hunting at night; and as soon 
as his babies are old enough to be taught, they and their mother may be seen traveling 

through the woods, single file. 

They live in burrows, where they retreat 
for the winter’s sleep in the late fall, after they 
have become so fat that they cannot exert 
themselves to get food. 

In the old times, hunters and trappers 
occasionally were bitten by skunks on the nose 
and ears while sleeping, and they would die 
of rabies. For this reason every one feared 
the skunk, and imagined the bite of all skunks 
produced rabies. There is, occasionally, an 
epidemic of hydrophobia among skunks, and 
then they are dangerous to both man and animal people; but the skunk bite does not always 
produce rabies and many people are now devoting their time to raising skunks for the market 
of skins. 




MOUNTAIN-GOAT 
























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MOUNTAIN-GOAT AND WEASEL 



AR up in his Rocky Mountain home, where you find the wildest scenery, 
surrounded by glaciers, climbing almost inaccessible places—particularly 
dangerous, ice-covered mountain-sides—the mountain-goat has his strong¬ 
hold. Only the boldest, most daring hunter may follow him into his rocky 
fastness. They say he is the most stupid of all animals, and you might sup¬ 
pose him slow and clumsy; but in reality he is the most expert and the 

swiftest climber of all hoofed animals. Do you know why? Mother Nature 
has provided him with a peculiar set of hoofs, padded in the center, to catch hold of and 
cling to the rocks, and sharp and knifelike around the edges, to cut into the ice and hold 
him, when he is passing over slippery places. 

Perhaps he is stupid because he feels so secure in his almost inapproachable home that 
he need fear nothing; but he always keeps a sharp lookout for the approach of an enemy. 
His eyes are very keen, and he can see long distances; but he has never learned that an 
enemy may hunt him from above as well as from below. Nothing that passes beneath him 
escapes his sharp eyes. Should he see a strange object he will watch it until the danger 
passes out of sight, perhaps around a little rise, then he will go on; and when next you see 
him he is almost at the top of a high mountain. All his enemies know they cannot 

approach him from below, and animal hunters, as well as man hunters, start for this game 

from above. 







MOUNTAIN-GOAT AND WEASEL 


If the hunter prove to be steady enough of nerve to follow this beast as he travels over the 
little ledges of rock, he will find no difficulty in killing him; for he is known to be one of 
the most stupid of our game animals, and will stand still and watch the hunter come 
on. 

If you should see a goat in his rocky home, you would think him the queerest, strangest 
beast imaginable. His shoulders are high and his hind quarters low, and he is covered with 
long, wiry hair of cream-white color. This is his outside coat. Inside he wears a woolly 
coat, next to his skin. The inside coat keeps him warm, while the outside coat sheds all 
the rain and snow. 

His four short, stocky legs carry him along in a slow, lumbering gait. 

He has a pair of very black horns—almost sharp-pointed spikes. They are not very 
imposing; and the square, short beard which reaches straight across his chin does not add 
to his beauty. 

H is flesh is not good to eat, unless you can get no other food; it tastes musty and dry. 
H e is hunted for his head and hide. But he need not leave his rocky home to get his food, 
as he finds great patches of lovely grass just above timber-line, and he loves the short, almost 
lichen-like, moss that grows on the face or at the base and between the crevices of the 
rocks. 

When the hunter starts in search of this Rocky Mountain game he often runs across the 
bloodthirsty little weasel, who changes his suit of fur from a reddish brown in summer to 
one of pure white in winter. He is a wicked little murderer, and often kills to satisfy a 
vicious desire. He may not be hungry, but he will kill ten or fifteen small animals, one 
after another, and just let them lie where they died, while he goes on in search of new prey. 


MOUNTAIN-GOAT AND WEASEL 


H is white fur resembles that of the beautiful ermine; in fact, he is called the ermine of 
America. He has even the black tip to his tail. 

Weasels will often kill ground-squirrels and then take possession of their burrows; 
although they also make their homes under stumps and in the hollows of old trees. 



WEASEL 


MINK AND OTTER 


HE quick, graceful little brown mink is found all over this country and is 
as happy in the water as he is on land. Though he has many enemies, he 
fears none, as he can always find a hiding-place. He can climb a tree with the 
agility of a cat, or he can dive into a stream and swim almost as well as a 
fish. He loves to dodge and suddenly disappear into a hole—perhaps no 
bigger than a rat hole—or to hide under a lot of fallen leaves and glide 
along so quietly that the hunter just stands still and wonders into what 
hole he has disappeared. Then, way off in the distance, the saucy little mink will sit up 
to get a glimpse of his enemy, probably laughing to himself and enjoying the fun he is hav¬ 
ing at the hunter’s expense. Then off he scampers again. 

The mink is both a land and a water hunter. He loves to explore swamps, to find frogs 
and lizards, or turn over dead leaves to see if any snakes or insects have hidden themselves 
away there. Though he loves to live on the banks of rivers, where he can find all sorts of 
good things and splendid hiding-places, he also wanders into the wild woods, where he can 
find birds; these he catches in great numbers, to satisfy his love for killing. 

The mink digs a home for himself in the ground, but often he steals the muskrat’s home. 
One day a hunter saw a mink run into a muskrat’s hole. He dug out the place andTound 
ten dead muskrats in the hole the mink had appropriated for his own home! 

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MINK AND OTTER 


thing, He will look for an air hole, jump into the icy water, and hunt for the little mice 
that run along the shore space at the edge of the water; then out he will come and follow 
a rabbit-track in the snow. He is a busy fellow and hunts the wood folk, upon which he 
preys, both night and day. Once upon the trail of the wild folk, the mink keeps right after 
his prey until he catches it. He sleeps whenever he is tired. 

While sitting before his campfire one evening, a hunter friend was suddenly surprised by 
a rabbit, which jumped out of the bushes and almost into the fire, but he rushed right ahead, 
as fast as the poor frightened little creature could go. Almost immediately a mink jumped 
out of the same bushes, hurrying after his game; but the surprise party was such a surprise 
that it separated the hunter and the hunted and saved the rabbit’s life. 

The mink and his otter cousin are hunted and trapped for their fur, which is very valu¬ 
able. The poor otter, though larger than the mink, is almost gone, just because people like 
to wear his fur. 

The otter loves the water better than the land ; although originally he was a land animal, 
belonging to the marten or weasel family. Now, after having been a splendid fisherman for 
so long, he is gradually getting to look like a small seal and has become a semi-water ani¬ 
mal. Strangely enough the baby otters are afraid of water and have to be taught by their 
parents to swim. The body is long and flat, with very short legs and webbed toes. 

The otter’s home is a den under the bank of a stream, with the opening under the water, 
for he knows that is the safest place. But some of the otter people select a deep cave high 
up on the bank of a river for a nest; and even the bottom of hollow trees are sometimes used. 

The otters often travel over land for great distances, from one body of water to another, 
but their legs are so short that traveling on land is very slow. In winter they have great 


MINK AND OTTER 


fun traveling; they slide down every snow-bank they come to and in this way save a great 
deal of walking. 

The otters love to romp and play on the grassy bank of a stream, or in the pines, like lit¬ 
tle puppies. When they find a stream with a steep bank, they make a path to the top, so 
as not to disturb the slide. Then they lie flat on their stomachs and slide down the muddy, 
slippery bank into the water. They go one after the other, sometimes racing, and often just 

missing a collision before they get to the bottom. 
Their fur seems to be so oily that the water can 
never reach the skin. 

The fur is very dark and the Indians say that 
is because, many years ago, an Otter and his three 
brothers, who were very light, stole the sister of 
three brothers, who always lived in the woods 
upon the earth. They took her into their dark 
den to live, and when her brothers finally found 
where she was they went down to rescue her. 

The sister told her brothers how unkind all the 
Otters but the darkest had been. The brothers 
were very angry and, as the Otters came into their den, one by one, the brothers killed all 
but the dark and homely one. That is why all Otters are dark to this day; and if the dark 
one had not been so kind and good, we might not know anything about the Otter to-day. 
At least, that is what the Indians say. 



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SEAL AND SEA-LION 


EALS are meat-eating animals, with bodies more suited for life in the 
water than on land, yet they often come out of the water and make a 
strange picture trying clumsily to paddle their way over land. Seals live in 
almost all oceans, but are more plentiful toward the Poles than anywhere 
else. Their young wear a white, woolly coat and live on an ice-cake with 
their mother, ready to jump into the water at the first sign of danger. 
The fur seal is not plentiful, being greatly reduced by the hunters, who 
kill him for his wonderful coat; but he is not the seal so important to those who make their 
home or work in the frozen North, nor is he found as near the Poles. Many an explorer 
would have starved to death were it not for the seal and the polar bear. The seal furnishes 
light, heat, food and clothing for these North people. 

An Eskimo will sit on a cake of ice, near the breathing-hole of a seal, and with the point 
of his spear will scrape the ice. The seal is a most curious creature and must find out 
what the strange noise may mean. He will come up, a long way off, and try to find out if 
the strange object on the ice be friend or foe. If the Eskimo should be wearing a white suit, 
the seal will dive under the water and not come up again until he is at least one hundred and 
fifty yards away ; because he is sure his Northland enemy, the bear, is hunting him; but if 
the Eskimo should be dressed in a dark suit of fur, the seal will think he may be a brother, 
and swim within fifty yards to find out what the strange hummock on the ice really is. He 
will swim slowly all around the object, looking at it all the time. 




SEAL AND SEA-LION 


When the seal is fat he will weigh about two hundred pounds; one hundred pounds of 
this being blubber and the other hundred flesh and bones. 

The Eskimo sometimes go to the edge of the ice and set nets to catch seals, and often 
five or six are caught in a single night. A great deal of this catch is prepared for the long 
winter. To do this the Eskimo carefully skin a seal, making as small a cut in the hide as 
possible. This bag, or “poke,” is filled as tightly as they can pack it with seal blubber cut 
up into small pieces; then it is set aside until it.is ready for use. This is considered a great 
delicacy among the Eskimo. 

After the seal poke has been standing all summer and become oil-soaked it is called an 
Av-wa-tak-pak and is waterproof. When the oil-soaked bag is empty the women scrape the 
inside until it is clean, but they leave the hair on the outside, and of this they make the win¬ 
ter boots. Some of the Eskimo like these boots made with the hair inside, as this keeps the feet 
very warm. Others prefer leaving the hair outside; but when worn this way the hair 
gathers snow and ice and makes traveling very hard. These are the boots for winter wear; 
to make the summer boots the women carefully scrape the sealskin both inside and outside. 
Th is makes a very thin and pliable boot, which, after it has soaked in seal-oil, is also water¬ 
proof. 

The Ugruk, or walrus hide, is used for making the soles of their boots. This walrus is a 
very large fellow, and is not very common. 

To get the greatest amount of work out of their dogs, explorers feed them as much blub¬ 
ber as they will eat. This gives heat and strength and enables the dogs to travel faster with 
the sleds. 

In the summer months, when the seals are very thin, they sink one minute after they have 


SEAL AND SEA-LION 



been killed. If the Eskimo are hunting in kyaks, it is easy to reach a seal before he goes 
down, but when the Eskimo are sitting on a cake of ice it is difficult to get their game; so 
they use a “nixy,” which they have become very expert in throwing. A nixy is a long rope 
with a hook at one end, and it is used in very much the 
same way that a boy throws a sling. The Eskimo are 
so expert at throwing the nixy and catching the seal 
with the hook before he can go down, that they seldom 
lose their game. 

The sea-lion and the seal are very different animals. 

The seal has a short neck, while the sea-lion’s neck is 
long. His front flippers are simply paddles while his 
hind flippers are web toes. 

Th ese fellows are not only more active in the water 
than the seals, but they can climb rocks and high cliffs 
with the greatest ease. They are the animals we always 
see in the zoological parks. 

The largest sea-lions in the world are found in a few 

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isolated spots. Some of the male specimens are from 
ten to eleven feet in length, weighing about fourteen 
hundred pounds, and are known as Steller’s sea-lions, 
lows fight awful battles; but, like all other wild folk, they have learned to fear man. At the 
sight of a human being they have been known to jump into the water from cliffs sixty feet 
high, to escape their enemy. 


SEA-LION 

Among themselves, these great fel- 


MUSK-OX AND WHITE WOLF 


.Y up in the frozen North, where the long, dark nights are cold and fierce, 
there lives the strangest of all our large animals. His body looks like 
an oblong mass of very long, wavy, brown hair, supported upon short legs, 
that look like posts, partly hidden by his long hair. His tail is only three 
inches long and almost invisible. The top of his head is covered by a 
pair of enormous horns, flattened at the base and meeting in the center of 
his forehead; from here they cross the head and curve downward, close 
to the cheek, and finally upward to a point. 

It is hard to imagine how these animals get food in the dark months. Of course there 
are ridge crests kept clear of snow by blizzards and heavy winds, and they probably dig 
through snow and ice for grass, willow, and saxifrage, but when spring comes these strange 
creatures look as if they had been well fed. 

Like the caribou this creature has a fine, soft, dense, light brown wool next to his skin, 
for warmth, through which neither cold nor wet can penetrate, as the long, coarse hair 
sheds the rain and snow. This long woolly coat of the musk-ox is highly valued by the 
Eskimo, who use it for many things. 

The legs of the musk-ox are very short, with the queerest of hoofs. Each hoof is divided 
into two parts, the two hoofs of each foot are not symmetrical, and the lower surface is par¬ 
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MUSK-OX AND WHITE WOLF 


The musk-oxen travel in bands of from twenty-five to fifty; many times in greater numbers, 
especially in winter. In summer the bulls travel alone, while the cows and calves wander 
about in small bands. At this time of year, their food consists almost exclusively of the 
leaves of small willows, scattered about here and there over the Barren Ground, but, also, 
they eat grass, lichens, mosses, and probably bark. 

The musk-ox, when hunted by man or beast, turns to challenge his enemy, and stands 
perfectly still, facing him. This habit, so fatal to the poor beast when hunted, is all that 
saves him from destruction. The cow musk-oxen gather in a circle about the calves, to pro¬ 
tect them and defy their natural enemy, the white wolves (who infest the Barren Ground 
in big packs) to attack. 

In spite of their short legs, the musk-oxen can run with considerable speed; they are 
even said to climb steep cliffs and then turn around to defy the hunters. 

This wonderful inhabitant of the far North is looked upon as a god by the Eskimo, and 
they feel sure that if the white man be allowed to carry off a live musk-ox, the musk-oxen 
will disappear and never come back again. 

One year a white man was sent to get some calves for a museum. He worked hard, 
roped four calves and was bringing them home safely when some of the Eskimo crept 
upon their camp at night, while they were asleep, and killed every calf. They would not 
dare allow a live musk-ox to go out of the country. 

The worst enemy the musk-ox has is the great white wolf. These wolves travel about 
in packs and attack the calves. Then the musk-oxen gather in groups around the calves 
and protect them. This savage beast will attack even man and dog when he is desperately 


MUSK-OX AND WHITE WOLF 


hungry. Dogs are invaluable to the Eskimo, and when they are attacked and bitten by 
wolves it means death inside of three days, as they are sure to get rabies. 

This great wolf slinks along like a shadow and, like all other Arctic folk, he wears a 
dress of pure white. The Eskimo dread him and always try to kill him before he has a 
chance to destroy their dogs. 



WHITE WOLF 



TIMBER-WOLF 





























TIMBER-WOLF AND BADGER 



^LINKING, creeping along, like great ghostly shadows, the wandering, unsettled, 
restless, gray wolves hunt up and down the country, in great packs. They 
prefer the wind-blown prairies of the West, where they followed the herds 
of bison in the old time, when the bison and Indians owned all the great 
West, but now they follow the cattle. 

They rarely attacked the old bulls or cow bison, unless these happened 
to be wounded or crippled, but they were after the calves. Sometimes in the winter when 
the snow was deep the very old bulls used to wander off all by themselves; these the wolf 
pack would attack and hamstring. 

The pack generally consisted of the old female, the most savage of the pack, and her full- 
grown family. If one of the pack scented a game trail, that one would give the hunting 
call, and others would join him from all around, to give chase. If the game should be a 
deer, the wolves would hamstring him, or they would jump at his throat, and kill him. 
They will even attack a big moose when he is alone, just as they would a bison. 

This large, powerful beast is savage, and he will follow herds of sheep, killing twenty or 
thirty at a time, just to satisfy his terrible love for killing. The wolf also loves to hunt in 
the shadows of the dense, dark swamps and tamaracks of the North, and in the heavy tim¬ 
ber of the Rockies, where game is plentiful. When hungry, this gray, ghostly shadow will 
sometimes slink along for hours, following a hunter carrying game; but he will seldom 
attack a man, unless he should run or try to get away. Sometimes the hunter will drop 



TIMBER-WOLF AND BADGER 


his game; then the cowardly fellow will stop to devour it; and if the hunter were to fire a 
shot into the pack and wound one of the wolves, the others would jump upon the wounded 
brother and tear him to pieces. 

Some of the old Indian dogs were pure gray wolves and some were coyotes. 

The mother wolf usually has four or five and sometimes six young; these she cares for 
very tenderly, while the father wolf provides food for her. 

H e is one of the most cunning of animals, and therefore the hardest to catch. He knows 
better than to be caught in a trap; and he has been known to carry for a long distance a 
piece of meat into which poison has been put, and then drop it. 

H e is such a ghostly beast, that the old Indians tell a tale which would almost make us 
believe the Indians knew all about “keeping the wolf from the door.” They tell a folk¬ 
tale of an old Indian woman with her pack of phantom wolves. She leads them out of her 
cave, and then they gradually spread and spread, until they devastate the country, and the 
Indians suffer famine The raven is her forerunner, and when the Indians see a big raven 
flying along they look sharply for fear they will see the old woman and her wolves following. 

This great big wolf goes slinking about at night, trying to catch the wise little badger; 
but the badger also travels at night, and if he should be far from his home when he sees 
his wolf enemy he just flattens his short-legged, broad, flat body, and lies close to the ground, 
where only the keenest-sighted will see him. (He does not dare run: he is so fat that he 
is very slow.) 

The badger is an underground, burrowing animal; and the holes he has dug for his 
home have been the cause of many a horse breaking his leg, for the horse steps into the 
hole before he can avoid it. 


TIMBER-WOLF AND BADGER 


The badger’s cousin in the Old Country was looked upon as a game animal, and a favorite 
sport was hunting him with dogs. But the dog found a good enemy, for the badger has a 
real bulldog grip, and his jaws seem to lock after he has taken hold. 

If th is slow, sullen fellow with his savage disposition is left alone he is very harmless and 
does good. At night, during the summer, he hunts for gophers, field-mice, ground-squirrels, 
prairie-dogs; in fact, he eats all the small ground folk. Through the long winter he sleeps; 
but the Indians know he is a very wise person, and that the spirit of the badger, if he 
should come to any of them, will bestow the gift of wisdom and make the Red Man he 
visits wiser than all others. Those who belong to the badger clan would never think of 
killing that animal, as he is their totem. 



BADGER 


WOLVERINE AND FISHER 


HE greatest thief, the biggest glutton, and the most sullen beast of our 
smaller animals is the wicked wolverine, or Indian devil, as he is named by 
the northern trappers. He is hated by explorers, as he breaks into their 
caches and destroys everything; what he does not care to eat or cannot eat, 
he soils so it cannot be used. Yet the fur of this hated wolverine is the only 
fur that explorers and Eskimo can use close to the face with comfort, as 
frost from the breath will not cling to it. 

The wolverine is hated by everybody and everything. In Wyoming he is called the 
skunk bear; and in Washington, Indians call him the mountain devil. He is a member of 
the weasel family; he never risks his life, but always manages to get a good meal, and just 
slinks about through the forest, robbing traps, and getting at the trappers’ stores. 

He steals not only from man hunters, but from animal hunters as well. Many animals 
hide or bury what food they can for winter use, but the wicked wolverine finds it and eats 
all he can, then destroys what he cannot eat, so no other animal can get it. 

This fellow is so sly and clever that he springs traps and eats the bait without so much as 
hurting a hair. Trappers have found that the only way to trap him is to bury the traps 
deep down under the snow and smooth over the place as if they were hiding food from 
him. Then he will dig, to steal from the cache, and so get caught in the trap. When 
a trapper gets a wolverine, he is very happy and seems to gloat more over capturing this 












WOLVERINE 








































































WOLVERINE AND FISHER 


wicked-tempered, destructive little glutton than he does over the possession of the hide. 

The fisher, like the wolverine, belongs to the weasel family. He is as strong as his cousin, 
the wolverine, but he is very much more spry and has more courage. He travels at night, 
loves the dark evergreen woods, and he is as much at home in the tree-tops as on the 
ground. He eats all kinds of flesh, from the deer to the hare, and has been known to kill 
even the porcupine with its terrible armor of spines. He is at home in the swamps as 
well as the mountains; and, like his wolverine 
cousin, he helps the trappers look after their traps. 

They hate the fisher as much as they do the wol¬ 
verine, as he sleeps all day and does all his dam¬ 
age at night. Trappers will walk many miles, in 
deep snow and terrible weather, to gather skins, 
only to find that the fisher has been there first. 

Perhaps he has sprung the traps and stolen the 
bait, but most likely he has taken out the animal 
caught and torn it to shreds. If a trapper suc¬ 
ceeds in outwitting this sly hunter, he feels that 
he has won a hard-earned victory, for he has tri¬ 
umphed over a most cunning and sly creature 
and one of the wildest of all our wild folk. 

The fisher is larger and has a more bushy tail 
than the weasel or mink. He is of a grayish brown color, and the tip of his bushy tail is 
black. 



FISHER 


WOLVERINE AND FISHER 


One of the fisher’s worst enemies is the crane. The fisher loves to rob the nests of these 
birds, and eat the young; but the old crane is too much for him. She will drive her long 
bill into his eyes or into his brain, and kill him. That is why the fisher is always very 
careful to visit the crane’s nest when the mother is away. 





























































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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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